Kingdom Hearts 3 is finally out and I am really enjoying it. It is the most ambitious entry in the series with bigger worlds, better stories and the visuals are just wow! So far it has lived up to the hype and surpassed my expectations as a long-running fan of the series.
Related: The Kingdom Hearts 3 Toy Story Figurines Are Adorable
The sheer amount of variety truly shows that Square Enix and Disney were not holding back when it came to creating the biggest and best game in the series. With all the praise I give it there is one big issue I am facing. Kingdom Hearts 3 is too easy.
Update
So making it to the end of the game and the issue persisted on Proud Mode. Attacks were just way too strong. I never wanted to upgrade my Keyblades nor make use of any of the buffs available through the cooking aspect of the game. Overall, a lot of the features implemented into the game felt like a waste due to the fact that combat and everything related to it is just way too easy. There was just no reason, other than a trophy/achievement, to upgrade you Keyblades and cook dishes. This could have been something so great yet it was a swing a miss for me.
I just hope Square-Enix do something to up the challenge a bit and give me a reason to replay the game with an actual life or death combat feel.
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Original post below
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I was about halfway through playing the game on Standard when it hit me. I did not die in combat once. I did see the game-over screen during the Gummi Ship exploration where I went up against a boss I should have only discovered later on but in terms of Sora’s combat in the worlds themselves well, the game is just too easy.
I have played every Kingdom Hearts game released and even the Standard game modes offer some sort of challenge to a certain degree. You would have to take things slow in a new world you just entered as the level increase would mean enemies would take longer to die and Sora would take more damage from them. I have completed a few worlds now and none of them has delivered such a challenge.
I then decided to restart and play on the hardest difficulty available at launch, Proud. While it is tougher, it still seems to be way too easy compared to past games. I recently completed Kingdom Hearts; Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage on Proud to try complete more challenges and Aqua got served a Heartless beating in that mode. She would die within 2-3 hits from an enemy right through the game.
Proud in Kingdom Hearts 3 seems to be more like the Standard mode and offers just a slightly more challenging approach to combat but it still fails to deliver that intense life or death situation fans are used to from past games. We had the same issue last year with Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom which had some serious issues with difficulty. It was way too easy compared to the original and it all boiled down to the game being “Westernized” and dumbed down for new adopters to the series. Kingdom Hearts 3 seems to be facing the same issue.
My goal with Kingdom Hearts 3 was to play it on Standard, enjoy the story and collect everything and then again on Proud to really get given a challenge and I am really disappointed so far. Sora is way too powerful and the sheer amount of combat variety when it comes to the attractions, Keyblade transformations and Trinity moves make combat way too easy.
There were always those moments in past games where you would get your ass handed to you by a Nobody after discovering them for the first time. I have had new confrontations with enemies and every battle just ends with Sora’s health almost at max and the enemies being demolished in a few hits.
To make it worse, I have yet to even start upgrading my Keyblades (which is now a feature to help make you stronger. really?), and I am deliberately ignoring the mechanic just to try and make it more challenging. We then also have the Zero XP ability which when enabled will not grant Sora any XP from combat. Sure, this could be another option but I would then have to suffer having no progression at all such as skills and new abilities being unlocked through levelling up.
I am also not an extremely high level either. I enter the worlds either one level below the requirement or the required level. The same pattern is seen across all worlds as enemies just die way too quickly. Sora literally just demolishes them without any real challenge or strategy.
It is a shame really. Kingdom Hearts 3 is such a magnificent experience and the new discovery of enemies and boss fights would be so much more enjoyable if they actually challenged you. Playing on Proud now and while it is harder than the Standard mode, it still feels way too easy. Those of you who have played the series in the past will agree that the games offered a challenge throughout the game and there were some steep difficulty spikes that had you farming XP to level up. Right now I wish I can take levels away from Sora just to give me a reason to participate in combat. I have now started to avoid mobs so I can stay a few levels lower than the world’s requirement.
What are your thoughts on this? Think the game needs some adjustments? Let us know in the comments below.
